‘Ordinary Working Men’: Professional Rugby League Players and Full Time Employment Outside the Game.

Using interviews from the University of Huddersfield’s ‘Up and Under’ rugby league oral history project, this paper explores the role played by the working life of professional players in shaping general perceptions of the sport. A diverse range of testimonies from supporters and the players themselves are examined to discuss ways in which oral history can be used to both complement wider contemporary and historical commentaries and offer new perspectives on the sport and the cultural relationships it engenders.